Putting it out there...

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

I got out of the Uber
and helped the driver empty it.He gave
me a “good luck” and drove off; leaving me on a gritty London sidewalk, in smelly bike clothes, going on 29 hours with only 30 minutes of sleep, with my CamelBak, drop bags, bike frame, and
two wheels. Alone, behind my Airbnb, my nice expensive gear in a heap - having
just completed the ride of my life. –Jack

Riding the 1400KM London-Edinburgh-London (LEL) was
something we had been planning for about two years, ever since we got spots in
the early registration in 2015. Riding for Severna Park Peloton (Severna Park, Maryland, USA): Chip, Jack, Clint. Hoping to
join us (but couldn’t): Mike C and Scott C.

Jack: This was the only item on my bucket list. I had been
looking forward to it ever since I discussed the event with Susan Otcenas at
dinner before the 2014 Lap of the Lake (LOL) 1000K. I had even gotten my boss
to guarantee that I could have the time off, even if it meant he would have to give
a major presentation for me.I have to
say I have never planned and prepared for something more carefully, or devoted
so much time and money, into anything that did not involve family or work
before.

LEL was fully supported, with controls about every 30-60
miles that provided great food, drinks, showers, beds, massages, mechanical
assistance, and drop bag opportunities.You were allowed 2 drop bags, and since the route was essentially
out-and-back, you had up to 4 opportunities to access your stuff, change
clothes, restock on supplies, etc. With
9 controls in each direction it’s important to carefully select those two controls!

Our main objective was to maximize riding during daylight
hours in order to catch the scenery, and to minimize riding in the dark to
avoid having to navigate strange and sometimes bad/narrow roads with an unfamiliar
signage system.

Because of the drop bag rules, our desire to minimize night
riding, and the 10:45 AM start time we were assigned, we sent our drop bags to
Louth and Brampton.Louth would have us
stopping just after dark on the first day, a short day of riding followed by a
short sleep stop. That would set us up to ride during daylight and sleep during
darkness for the rest of the Event. Days #2-#4 would each be ~190 miles
(~300K), with nights #2 and #3 both in Brampton (reaching Edinburgh between
those nights, with Brampton being analogous to Loudeac in
Paris-Brest-Paris).Night #4 would be
Louth again, then finish the next day (hopefully), or thereafter.

Two days before the start (Friday) we all arrived in London
- Jack and Christine flying in from Baltimore, Clint, Sherri, & Nicole
after a UK cruise from Dover, and Sherri’s sister after a week in Paris.We all checked into an Airbnb in London,
where the non-riders played tourist during the ride.After assembling our bikes we went for a spin
through London just to make sure everything held together.

The elevator in the Airbnb building was a little tight

Shakedown on the streets of London

On Saturday morning we took the London Underground and an
Uber to register at the start location at the Davenant Foundation School in
Loughton, a suburb northeast of London.We picked up our “route cards” and filled our drop bags with the stuff
we brought.Each drop bag was color
coded for its control, so the accumulating bags provided a living histogram of
rider preferences. We were not alone in our Brampton strategy, as was borne out
by the number of pink Brampton drop bags. There were so many pink bags that
there was also a truck filling up with them when this photo was taken.

The histogram. Brampton is pink

Jack and Clint with their two 5 lb drop bags filled to the max

We managed to catch up with most of the 10 DC Randonneurs (Washington D.C.) riders
at registration.Here we are with DC
Rand President Mike W.

Jack, Mike, and Clint

Sunday morning was the start. We posed for a quick photo and left the Airbnb
for a train ride to the start.

Departing our Airbnb in SPP team colors

During a previous business trip to the UK, Jack had ridden
the London Underground from the Airbnb to the start to scout it out.
Confidently, we took our bikes to the Dalston Junction station and Clint bought
a ticket (Jack had his “Oyster Card” pass).After some quizzical looks from the ticket seller and question about our
destination we headed down to the platform.Right as we got to the platform an excited employee came running down to
us.At first it seemed he was going to
tell us we would not be allowed to take our bikes on the train. Jack had
checked out the bike rules – technically we weren’t allowed to have bikes on the train between
two of the intermediate stations later on our route, but the LEL organizer had responded
to a query from Jack that this rule was rarely enforced. Instead, the employee
told us was that one of the three trains we were going to ride to the start
didn’t start running on Sunday morning until a couple hours later.Jack missed this detail in his scouting
because he had scouted on a Friday morning, and the previous day’s trip to
register was on Saturday.The employee’s
intervention was clutch – he saved us from an ill-fated trip
that would have had us miss our start, and got us on an acceptable alternative.The only glitch in the planning, but no blood
no foul.

We got to the start and were soon called into the start box
just prior to 10:45 along with the other 50 riders in our start group, all of us
whose rider numbers started with “R”.As
background, riders are pre-grouped in blocks of 50 starting with letter A at
6:30am.B riders launch at 6:45,
etc.This would be important later to
gauge our progress as we “caught” lower letter riders who started before us,
and the later letter riders who caught us. The gate opened at 10:45 and we rolled
out onto the course.

Jack: The first few kilometers were completely familiar
although I’d never been there before.A
US cue sheet will instruct you how to turn at an intersection by providing the
direction of the turn and the name of the road to turn onto. In the UK, road
names are not always present at an intersection. Instead what you frequently
get is a signpost that tells you which town is down each road at an
intersection.As a result, the LEL “route
sheet” has an extra column called “signed” to tell you what you might find on a
sign pointing down that next road.The
route sheet also uses some different abbreviated instructions from what is
commonly used on a US cue sheet.For
example:

0.3

SO @ X [A1121] !CAUTION!
BUSY ROAD

(Brothertoft, Langrick)

B1192

27.7

5.3

R

(Sibsey, Frithville)

B1184 Armtree Road

33.0

To prepare for LEL, I had ridden the first few km on Google
Street View back at home with the route sheet in hand to ensure I could
navigate and the route sheet and the signs along the way all made sense.

The first control, St Ives, was 100K down the road.The “R” group pretty much rode as a pack
through gently rolling terrain.However,
after one turn there was some confusion as a couple of the lead riders suddenly
stopped as if it was a wrong turn.This
caused the whole group to hesitate for a moment, however Clint and I were
confident of navigation and kept up our speed.Suddenly we were ahead of almost the entire group, then pretty much off
the front. The group ride ended there, but losing the group was not a problem
because of a nice tail wind.The
prevailing winds typically provide such a tail wind here, and a corresponding
head wind for the return trip.Our ride
plan factored this in. Based on actual progress during LOL, our ride plan had
us averaging (not including nightly sleep stops) 20 kph overall before stopping
in Louth for 5 hours (all other sleep stops 6 hours), 17 kph until Edinburgh,
and 15 kph for the return trip to account for anticipated fatigue and head
winds.We were flying and we felt great.
We hit the first control and had a quick meal – the cornish pasties were
outstanding. The organizers tell you to label your shoes, because controls are
usually schools with wooden floors that you can’t walk on in cleats.People have lost their shoes to other riders
who mistakenly have left in the wrong shoes.

Imelda Marcos’ closet

We continued to fly with the wind at our backs, ahead of
plan.Staying on or getting ahead of
plan was important because we had booked hotels at our Louth and Brampton sleep
stops for two reasons.Although they provided
air beds, controls were frequently overwhelmed with the number of riders looking
to sleep during LEL 2013.And LEL 2017
had 50% more riders than LEL 2013.Also,
controls could not guarantee charging connections or Wifi.Essentially none of the hotels you find along
the route have a 24 hour front desk, so if you arrived after about 10-11 PM you
might not get to check in. We had hoped to get ahead of plan, and it was
happening.At one point along the way we
encountered Bob C. from DC Randonneurs, who snapped this picture of the two
of us.

We were soon in an area known as the Fens, a low board-flat marshy
area with beautiful canals and views.The ride was playing out exactly as envisioned – fast and flat through
the Fens. It was playing out so well that we were catching earlier groups: Q,
P, O, even one rider from L!Nobody from
a later group passed us.

Flying through the Fens

We arrived at the Louth control at 9:21 PM then went to our
nearby hotel with our drop bags, over an hour ahead of our ride plan and with
over 9 hours “time in hand” (buffer ahead of the pace to make the time cutoff).
The hotel was one of those British deals with a pub downstairs and rooms above
it.We checked in with the bar maid, who
we asked about arranging to get into our room on the return trip if we arrived
after the bar closed that evening (our plan had us arriving at 2:00 AM).She was not very knowledgeable/helpful on
this point, so we just headed for our room for a short night’s sleep.The room was up several flights of narrow
stairs, and the last one involved a turn too tight to get out bikes around, so
we just stashed them as best we could on the floor below ours and got to our
room, showered, and slept 3 hours until 2:00 AM, then got up and got ready to
roll.

Jack:I didn’t sleep
much, because I just wasn’t all that tired from the short first day. When I bent
down to fasten my shoes water was spraying everywhere around me.It turned out I had lost the bite valve on my
Camelbak somewhere, and even sitting fairly upright on the bike caused water to
run out the tube.So I drank down the
Camelbak quickly and gave up on using it.

We took our drop bags back to the control, got something to
eat, and took off around 3:00 AM Monday.

We made an impromptu coffee stop around sunrise, and shortly
afterwards crossed one of the landmarks of the ride, the Humber Bridge. It’s
the eighth longest suspension bridge in the world, and the longest with a bike
lane.As the sun rose on the River
Humber…

Scenes from the Humber Bridge

We continued on through the Pocklington and Thirsk controls.

Brunch in Pocklington

Jack: the second day was a bit demoralizing for me – I was slow.Clint wanted to latch onto the groups that
passed us, but I didn’t have the legs to hang on.So Clint stayed with me throughout the day,
as we were passed by what seemed like hundreds of riders, with letters towards
the end of the alphabet, and then double letters (AA, BB,…).I started to doubt my prospects for
finishing, and contemplated sending Clint down the road without me (along with
my AWESOME Wahoo GPS that was keeping the two of us on course).However, at a control later in the day we
were told that the majority of riders were still behind us, which salvaged my
spirits.

One of the more annoying bits
of terrain along the way was in the Howardian Hills AONB (area of natural
beauty).Lots of short, steep stingers
around a large estate known as Castle Howard.

Castle Howard

The Barnard Castle control was memorable.Not only is there a beautiful castle ruin
along the way and the a beautiful control building, but we met Shab, wife of
Hamid A. (another DC Rand rider) volunteering there.She couldn’t do enough for us, even getting
Clint head-of-the-line privileges for a much-needed neck massage.

The Barnard Castle
Control

Shab could not do enough for us

Clint felt much better after the massage

We then headed for the big climb of the ride, Yad Moss, a
crossing of the Pennine mountain range that cuts across England. The summit is
around 2000 feet, with a climb that’s not overly steep but long and relentless.

Nearing the summit, sunset on Yad Moss

From Yad Moss we descended into the town of Alston, doing
about 35 mph when we were passed by a guy on a recumbent that must have been
doing 50 mph. Good thing we held our lines.It seemed really steep…more on that later.

A few miles later we were in Brampton for our second sleep
stop, 15 minutes ahead of plan with 10 hours time in hand.It had been an excellent day, not as slow as
it seemed. What made it even more excellent was our sleep spot for the next 2 nights, The Oakwood Park Hotel.

Jack: Thank God I had also checked Google Street View for
the hotels because there is no sign along the road, just a long winding
driveway into the darkness, leading to a stately-residence-now-hotel.I recognized the concrete posts at the
beginning of the driveway.

In previous emails our hostess Wendy mentioned that we’d get
there too late for dinner so she would put food in our room.Boy did she ever.Lots of sandwiches, chips, fruit, cheese, etc.
for dinner, and more for breakfast for when we got up.All included. “Would you guys like some lagers?”We looked at each other like “well…should
we??”, but ultimately decided to skip the beer.Another LEL pair checked in a little later.

After a luxurious 4 hours of sleep, we got up at 3:00 AM Tuesday
and got ready for another day of riding.We had the luxury of staying in our room again the next night, so we
just left our drop bag stuff in there and headed north for the third day.

It wasn’t long until we reached the Scottish border, where we
found ourselves in a daisy chain of picture taking.Upon reaching the sign you would find the
last rider to arrive and ask them to take your picture. As you were about to leave
the next rider would arrive and ask you to take their picture, etc., etc.

Progress!

We pressed on into Scotland, passing solemnly through
Lockerbie thinking about Pan Am flight 103.Then onto the Moffatt control.We were riding well, moving quickly through
light rain and fairly level terrain.The
sun came out by the time we took on the next big climb of the ride, the Devil’s
Beeftub, so named because rustlers used to hide stolen livestock behind the big
hills. Sheep were everywhere during LEL, and were particularly thick here.

If we count sheep to fall asleep, what do sheep count? Answer at the
end

We got over the Beeftub with little trouble and stopped for
coffee in the tiny village of Broughton, cheering on our fellow riders as they rode by.

Coffee stop enroute to Edinburgh

Before we knew it we found ourselves at the halfway point,
Edinburgh.Jack had visited this control, Gracemount High School, two years before just to see what the halfway point looked like, and
here we were.One of the other Severna
Park Peloton members, David K., splits his time between Maryland and
Scotland.He had us keep him apprised of
our progress, so he could meet us at the control.He also asked us what we might need, so when
we got there he handed Jack a replacement bite valve for his Camelbak and Clint
some lube and a rag for his chain.

Edinburgh!With David!

There was another big climb leaving Edinburgh, on the B7007, to over 1200
feet.The Edinburgh control was not in
downtown, but if you looked over your right shoulder as you were grinding up
this hill you could see into downtown and see such landmarks as Edinburgh
Castle and Arthurs’s Seat.The ride back
to Brampton was a series of climbs as well as beautiful remote valleys that
invited you to forget the pain and the fatigue and the clock long enough to
“stop and smell the roses.”

If you get too wrapped up in riding, you might just miss it

We were a bit disappointed to not find the sheet cakes and scotch
at the subsequent Scottish controls that LEL 2013 ride reports delighted in,
but we got over it.Perhaps the hardest
rain of the whole trip hit us here.It
wasn’t torrential, but it was the only time that rain got into Jack’s
waterproof sock covers.The other
showers we encountered were short-lived, light, and wind driven. Most times, if
you decided to stop to don rain gear the rain would stop almost immediately. We
felt way over-prepared for the rain encountered this trip, but learned later
that had we been a couple hours behind our pace we would have encountered some
real deluges during LEL.We soldiered on
towards our second night in our Brampton hotel.

Jack: it was here that my most regretful part of the ride
happened.I was getting very sleepy, and
told Clint that I wanted to go straight to the Oakwood Park Hotel and not check in at the
control until we returned our drop bags the following morning.We would arrive 30 minutes ahead of plan,
with almost 10 hours time in hand, so we didn’t have to check in upon
arrival.Besides, the hotel was before the control.Clint said he was concerned that those who
were tracking us on the LEL website, which displayed our arrival at each
control, would be concerned that we had not checked in at Brampton that night. But
we never made a decision on this.Later,
when I spotted the hotel’s unmarked driveway, I turned in and told Clint to
turn, but he did not.I then yelled to
him, but he kept riding towards the control.Figuring he had decided to go to the control first, I went up to the
room.Clint arrived about 20 minutes
later, although the control was only a couple blocks away.He had not heard me and had gotten lost.

Back in the room we feasted on restocked sandwiches, fruit,
etc. and enjoyed the breakfast Wendy provided when we awoke.

Some of Wendy’s hospitality

We departed the hotel at 5:00 AM Wednesday, checked in to
the Brampton control, and returned our drop bags.

Jack: Clint and I joined two other riders coming out of the
control and were rolling through Brampton when I noticed my legs were in trouble
again.Even on the gentle hills in town
I could not keep up with the other three riders.Remembering that Yad Moss lie immediately
ahead of us, and how steep the Brampton side seemed as I coasted down it two
days ago,I saw no way that these legs were
going to get me over that 2,000 foot ridge today.Despite the despair, I decided to give it a
go.If my legs finally gave out, I’d
just turn around and coast back into town and find a ride to London.So off we went. Little by little we ascended Yad
Moss.Calista P. from DC
Randonneurs passed us on the way up, which was a welcome surprise. As the
summit came into sight, what started as despair was becoming jubilation.I knew we were going to finish this ride –
everything else that lie ahead seemed trivial by comparison. Something else
that came into sight was a small white van on the side of the road – a
makeshift café.Clint asked me if I
wanted to stop for coffee, and I was ready to celebrate conquering Yad Moss, so
we did. We learned later the roadside
café was run by “audax legend” Drew Buck, who had been shadowing the ride,
appearing from time to time along the way.He was like the “Banksy of LEL” – appearing briefly along the
route on several occasions then disappearing again.

Atop Yad Moss.We got this!

We coasted down the back side of Yad Moss, and rolled into
the Barnard Castle control.We were both
feeling a little sleepy, so we decided to experiment with control sleep
facilities for the first time.We got
air mattresses in a dark gymnasium, complete with a pillow and a blanket that
was cheap and rough but felt great.It
took 5 minutes to fall asleep, and 15 minutes later when we were awakened it
felt like we had been sleeping much longer and felt much better.At the next control in Thirsk we did it
again, this time for 45 minutes, and felt good about it again.

Between the naps and just wearing down over 4 days of riding
we started slowing down and falling behind our plan. Over that day we had been
emailing the Louth hotel, trying to arrange an after-hour check-in for this
evening, and they agreed to let us in if we told them when we’d be getting
there, but now it looked like we would not arrive there until about 4:00 AM,
way too late for me to even ask.We
asked if we could cancel, and they let us off the hook.A better plan seemed to be to spend this night
on an air mattress in Pocklington, which we reached around 9:00 PM.Time was becoming a problem, as we were now
1.5 hours behind plan, time in hand had dwindled down to 5 hours, and we were
stopping for 6.The gymnasium there was
a wonder: 300 mattresses in the dark and quiet - excellent sleep. We slept from
9:30pm - 2:00am and were rolling by 3 AM Thursday.

We once again crossed the
Humber bridge at dawn - the bright sun to the east, and the wind (more on that coming up) and a perfect
rainbow to the southwest.Soon we were hit by
a pretty good shower which, if you considered the rainbow and wind direction in
combination, you could have predicted.But like most rain on our ride, it ended about the time we donned rain
gear.

Humber Bridge, southbound

Just before Louth, our original sleep destination, we
spotted someone laying in the grass on the side of the road.As we went by we recognized him as Pat O. ,
another DC Randonneur, so we circled back to see what was going on.He said he was suffering from Shermer’s neck
and was giving it a rest.When we
continued to the control, things were getting challenging.We arrived with only 1:20 time in hand. We retrieved
our drop bags for one last time and got showers, a change of clothes, and as
always something to eat. We later learned that Pat abandoned due to neck issues
(couldn’t turn his head to see traffic).We were also bummed that Mike W. and Bob C. abandoned, as did Jerry
S. due to food poisoning just 30 miles from the finish.

The wind intensified as the day went on.The forecast was 40 mph, and it felt and
sounded like it. Our perception of speed started to distort -it felt like you were going over 20 mph, when
your cycloputer said you were only doing 12.We just soldiered on, determined to get to the finish, before the time
cutoff (or otherwise).That afternoon
Clint had an urgent need for some ice cream, so we pulled off the route onto High Street in Horncastle and found a place.There was no place to sit so Clint sat on the
floor and had a milk shake, to the amusement of the proprietress.

Table for one

Further down the road Clint needed some caffeine, so he
ducked into a business that might (he hoped) have some coffee or Coke.

Jack: I continued down the road looking for coffee or Coke
for Clint.After about a mile I found
nothing, and stopped to wait for Clint to reach me.He showed up about 15 minutes later, having found
no caffeine other than some caffeine goo he was carrying. He rode by with a
couple other riders. Unfortunately, because of a few seconds delay in getting
rolling, I could not close the gap into the headwind.I tried for a couple miles, but could not get
there.Then bad went to worse, when the train crossing gate at Hubberts Bridge closed between Clint and me for about 5 minutes.When it opened, I was alone.I rode solo for several miles, or so I
thought until I looked behind me and saw 4 riders lined up behind me. When I
stopped pedaling for a periodic stretching of my sore lower back, they went
around me and took off.Several miles
later things got much better - a large group of Spanish riders came by and I
jumped on.They kept to themselves, speaking
excited Spanish amongst themselves, but seemed OK with hangers-on like me
hitching a ride.They swept me along to
the Spalding control, arriving just seconds after Clint did.Time in hand was only 1:12.

We set off across the Fens towards St Ives.The flat lands were indeed windy, but the
winds were starting to slacken as the sun began to set. At St Ives time in hand had dropped to 1:00 and we still had 119K to go in this howling headwind.Things were looking
dicey.

We set off for Great Easton, stopping almost immediately at a Shell station / Costa
Coffee. As it was after hours, the attendant was behind bulletproof glass and
served the coffee via one of those armored bank drawers. Many other riders stopped
and joined us. We then found ourselves on the most amazing bike path. A flat
and straight cross-country affair with little white lights on its edges like an
airport runway.It was a pleasure to
ride on, and we were on it for many miles.We soon found ourselves riding through Cambridge on a summer evening,
students walking about everywhere taking in the nightlife. Impressive
architecture everywhere.Departing the
city, we were alone on a small road when suddenly they returned – the
Spaniards!We hopped on and took
off.In the group was a nice lady from
Ireland – an English speaker who chatted for miles and miles.Every so often all the Spaniards would stop
together (nature break?), leaving the hangers-on to ride in a small group, then
catch us and carry us along further.The
roads were interesting, much of the way was nothing more than a paved goat path
with lots of gravel on it, over rolling hills.

We rolled into Great Easton at 1:47 AM Friday, with time in
hand increased to 2:04 thanks to the Spaniards.We knew we had this ride in the bag now, over 6 hours to cover just 48K
(30 miles). We felt so good that we decided to take a 30 minute nap there. It
was the smallest (30 beds) and noisiest (a guy talking on his cell phone,
people carrying on a conversation) of any sleep spot we had visited.

Jack: I needed that nap.During the day before I had developed something you might call “sideways
Shermers”.My head hung to the left,
although it didn’t hurt to do so.During
the ride to Great Easton, because of the tilt to my head, I started
hallucinating that all the bikes ahead of me were leaning to the right.

We got going on the final leg.We took it easy, knowing we could slow-roll
it all the way in. The sun was coming up and Friday morning rush hour traffic into London was
starting on motorways we over-passed.Then,
we were into the final turns and the finish was in sight.

Jack: I could not believe we were back where we
started.It felt like we had never
left.When I thought of all that
preparation that went into this and the challenges we had overcome, I have to
admit I choked up a bit as I rolled up the final street. As soon as I got off
my bike, I felt like a bouncy house whose fan had just been turned off.Like I was crumpling up, like it was finally
OK/possible to feel as tired as I really was.

We checked in one last time, handing our route cards to the
volunteer …

and he handed us our finisher medals.Wow, what a feeling of accomplishment!890 miles since Sunday. Our ride plan had us
finish with 6 hours time on hand, but we had used up over 4 hours of that
margin because of uncertainties: the wind, not knowing the fatigue that came
from riding that far, both more than anticipated.

The one element of planning we had not really finished was
how we were going to get our bikes, drop bags (which were at the finish), and
other stuff back to the Airbnb 13 miles away.At the last minute we called an UberXL, but none were available.So several of us each called a regular Uber,
one rider and one bike per car.

Jack:Everyone else
got a good-sized Uber that picked them up along with their stuff and took them
home. Me, I got a guy in a minivan who refused to take me.He said this was an Uber XL job, and despite
me pointing out that there was no Uber XL available and that my stuff would
easily fit in the minivan, he cancelled my Uber request in front of me and
drove off.I summoned another Uber, and
a guy in a Mercedes E class sedan showed up.I immediately told him that it wouldn’t work because of my bike, but he
insisted we try.By taking both wheels
off we got my bike in his trunk.Off we
went, to drop me off on that London sidewalk. I did my best to get my wheels
on, but didn’t really get the chain on the cassette. It didn’t matter.I called Christine and she came down and
helped me get my stuff up to our Airbnb.When I got there everyone was awake. They asked me if I’d do it again
and, having just ridden for 5 days with only 30 minutes sleep in the previous 29 hours, and I barked “definitely not!”But it’s been a couple of weeks now, and I now think it would be cool -
what an adventure!(That’s what they
call “rando-nesia”)

Dinner and the theatre the day the ride ended. 2 hours sleep in the
last 45, but somehow we stayed awake all evening

Took the Wahoo to the theatre so Clint could play with it before he
flew home the following morning. Christine was not pleased

Clint: Hats off to Jack for capturing so much detail I
forgot.This was my longest ride at
1400K (890 miles), more than PBP and Alaska (each 1200K), and more than the Lap
of Lake Ontario (1000K) we did twice.We
finished with a comfortable cushion of about 90 minutes under the max of 117
hours 5 minutes with no flats or other mechanicals.Jack’s awesome Wahoo GPS and his careful
review of the course before riding it helped to keep us on course, preventing
any bonus miles.

This was a very well supported event with about 1650 riders
from all over the world.The scenery was
awesome and the volunteers (hundreds of them) took excellent care of us.At each control we had to park our bikes, remove
shoes, check in (scan control card, time stamp, and initials) and sometimes scan
out, fill water bottles, use restroom, eat, sometimes nap, find drop bags (at 3
controls), shower once in Louth, find shoes, find bike (amongst hundreds parked
on the racks), find next cue sheet (every control started on a separate sheet
at mile 0), load the next GPS file (my Garmin rarely worked), locate Jack at
his bike, turn on bike lights if dark, then find the exit from control parking
lot.Then you wonder, “did I forget
anything?”Is there time to use the wifi
to send the picture and a short caption to SPP and a “we’re fine” text to both
spouses?

This was also a brutal LEL.The normal attrition is about 20%, but as of this writing it was
somewhere between 36% and half the field that didn’t finish within the time
limit.

Olaf Storbeck captured an image of us crossing Yad Moss and posted it on his blog

The whole trip (Disney UK cruise, week in Paris seeing the
Tour arrive, sightseeing in London, then riding LEL for 5 days) was a dream
come true, another checkmark on the bucket list.Although the ride was over, we still had to fetch
an Uber, clean and pack our bike & gear in the bike box back in the Airbnb,
shower, get a wonderful massage, take a nap, dinner with wives and family, and
stay awake for the show, Kinky Boots. The
next day we were back in Baltimore, dream over.

*****

Answer to the question: what do sheep count to fall asleep?LEL Riders

We can't claim credit for that joke. That was told to us by Guy Roefs, somewhere between Yad Moss and Edinburgh

Sunday, November 11, 2012

My first post in this blog was from last year's Flatbread 200K brevet. Yesterday was a repeat. Finished in 7:58, well ahead of last year. I credit lesser headwinds and better (but not optimal) nutrition

Lessons:

1. A Subway footlong is too much for lunch. Suffered digestive pains/shutdown and bonked until it cleared and I could get Gatorade flowing. Until then I was hanging with the lead group, but got dropped around mile 90.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

On the evening of 3-4 August I rode the Eastern Shore Reversed permanent with 3 other members of SPP. Fearing Friday afternoon beach traffic on my drive to Wallops Island, I left around 1:30 PM for a 7:00 PM start, stopping at Joy Luck IV for a quart of house fried rice to eat on the way (my carb-loading routine had been non-existent this time due to a couple of crises- I also had 3 bagels for breakfast), I got to Wallops about 5:30 (traffic in Salisbury was a mess), and had a BLT and three Pepsi's (felt a little dehydrated as well) for dinner with the others before heading out.

This was my first ride with my new Camelbak MULE, which held all my stuff and would have held more. This was a warm/humid/fast/sweaty ride, and I went through 2 bladders of water (~5l). Also two bottles of Gatorade, and probably still ended up on the dry side again. Food on this ride (other than the pre-meals): half a bag of jelly beans, a tastykake, and a clif bar. Definitely easier to drink from camelbak when riding fast, not sure it didn't make me hotter.

Receipts: Missed one at a control when the guy signed an old receipt vice giving me a new one. Sweat stinging my eyes was a big factor in the mixup. At a closed control got a receipt from a gas pump ($0.01, didn't even spill any gas).

This was a fast-paced ride. Finished 201K in 8:27 (an hour better than previous best). Had to dig deep to stay close, the rest would slow down occasionally to let me back on.

Lessons:
1. When switching between bike pack and camelbak, don't forget to transfer the spare spokes.
2. Didn't have enough spare batteries for all lights. The "headlight" might be too small/dim.
3. The GUTR would have been handy, even at night in 80F temperatures
4. Kept tasting the fried rice almost to the end of the ride - wise choice grasshopper?
5. Power Bars still don't set well. Get rid of them.
6. When riding at your limit it's hard to eat/drink. Be attentive to slow points in the ride to do these.
7. Had only commuted 8 times and ridden 40 miles with my daughter since last month's perm. Probably would have been faster with more mileage.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Here is a great description of Team Chain Reaction's ride in the 24-hour event - it is pretty complete. Team photo at the finish line:

My comments:

It was pretty obvious to the team that the amount of climbing we were doing exceeded the estimates. This later proved to be the case.

I thought frequently about what to do if I broke a spoke, especially likely since the bike was laden with extra stuff. Towards the end I mentally calculated whether I was close enough that I could walk the bike to the finish and still make the 24 hour limit.

I was surprised how not-sleepy I was throughout the event, getting drowsy only when stopping at 3:30 AM for food but not drowsy enough to nap (which many did). On the bike I was wide awake.

Lessons learned:

- Add a hand pump and sweat bands to the rando pack list
- Find a way to eat steadily in the saddle, not wolf down snacks and give yourself indigestion.
- Used the wrong chain lube - it pretty much was washed away by the rain.
- Carried way too many snacks (about 2-3x too much) just extra weight. One bag of candy and 4 powerbars would have been fine.